Going forward, the 9 a.m. hour of NBC’s “Today” is likely to be more about the show than the anchors who host it. With Megyn Kelly in discussions with NBC about her future at the network, media-buying executives say they expect the Peacock to return the third hour of its morning franchise to a more
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Imax continues to scale down its virtual reality (VR) ambitions: The company closed its New York-based VR Center in recent days, bringing the total number of such closures up to 3. Separately, executives promised investors on the company’s Q3 earnings call that they wouldn’t spend any additional money on such projects in 2019. The closure
October 26, 2018 10:33AM PT Joel Fields has joined the production team on FX’s limited series revolving around the creative partnership between stage legend Bob Fosse and dancer Gwen Verdon. Fields is serving as an exec producer on the eight-part series along with Thomas Kail, Steven Levenson and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams are set to
October 26, 2018 10:33AM PT Fox has ordered 13 episodes of a new animated family comedy from Amy Poehler and Mike and Julie Scully. Currently titled “Duncanville,” the show will center on Duncan, a “spectacularly average” 15-year-old boy and his family and friends. Poehler will lend her voice to the character of Duncan, as well
Netflix is a company whose unsentimental culture of firing underperforming employees has “unsettle[d] the ranks,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s lengthy, detailed piece published Thursday. But as in-depth as it was, the Journal’s 4,500-word story lacked some context. Namely: How happy are Netflix employees in general compared with other companies? And, more to the
NBC said Friday that it had cancelled “Megyn Kelly Today,” ending a fizzling experiment that matched an anchor with an outsized presence to a format best known for lighter fare, and indicated it would move its 9 a.m. hour back to a more traditional “Today” format. Meanwhile, an attorney for Megyn Kelly indicated the anchor
October 26, 2018 10:23AM PT Pitbull, the artist and entrepreneur also known as Armando Christian Perez, has signed with UTA across all areas worldwide, the company announced today. Musically speaking, the artist recently completed his second co-headlining tour with Enrique Iglesias this year and supported Britney Spears on her European tour, along with his “Time of Our
Homer Simpson gave the Georgia film and TV production community backhanded props in this season’s premiere of “The Simpsons,” telling prospective producers he had three conditions for permission to turn son Bart’s near-death experience into a movie: input on the script, tickets to the premiere, and, “I’m not thanking the Georgia Film Commission, no matter
“I would take my music around to the labels and would get the whole ‘It’s not black enough’ [response]. … The people at the R&B A&Rs couldn’t deal with the pop side, and the people on the pop side were confused as well.” Lenny Kravitz, the four-time Grammy winner whose 1989 debut album, “Let Love Rule,”
Justin Timberlake may be used to putting his thoughts into lyrics, but in his new book, the singer is putting pen to paper, revealing some of the biggest moments — and missteps — from his career. Out this Tuesday in bookstores and online, “Hindsight: & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me”
UPDATED: In the 11 years since it was founded as a platform for DJs to post their mixes, SoundCloud has become so popular that a genre of hip-hop was named after it. But the company struggled in its efforts to become a fully-licensed, above-ground platform, and nearly went out of business last year before reorganizing
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump praised law enforcement for the arrest of a suspect in connection with the sending of at least a dozen mail bombs to CNN, top Democrats, and other officials. “These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country,” Trump said, just a few hours after characterizing the suspected
October 26, 2018 9:23AM PT Facebook took down another 82 accounts, pages and groups linked to Iran that were targeting people in the U.S. and UK with divisive messages, the company announced Friday. “The Page administrators and account owners typically represented themselves as US citizens, or in a few cases UK citizens — and they
October 26, 2018 9:09AM PT Popular “Fortnite” Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is teaming up with recording label Astralwerks to create a soundtrack based on his gaming life. He announced the album on Friday during TwitchCon in San Jose, Calif. “Ninjawerks” will be available in digital, CD, and vinyl formats and it will feature music
Action-thriller “Hunter Killer” captured a moderate $420,000 at 2,200 North American locations on Thursday night. The Lionsgate title, starring Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, and Common, should collect between $5 million and $9 million this weekend when it launches at 2,720 sites. “Hunter Killer,” based on the novel “Firing Point,” follows a group of Navy SEALs
October 26, 2018 8:26AM PT The European Commission said on Friday that it had approved Sony Corporation’s move to take full control of EMI Music Publishing, saying the deal will not raise anti-competition issues. The Commission said it had cleared the transaction without conditions. Sony Corporation announced the deal, which would see it acquiring Mubadala Investment
October 26, 2018 8:20AM PT Netflix has given the greenlight to a CG animated musical movie that will revolve around the life story of Fugees founding member Wyclef Jean. The project hails from Stampede, the production banner recently launched by former Warner Bros. Pictures executive Greg Silverman. Justin Marks (“The Jungle Book”) is on board
Federal authorities have arrested a man in connection with the mailing of packages containing suspected explosive devices to CNN, top Democrats, and other prominent public figures. Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said, “We can confirm one person is in custody.” A press conference is planned for Friday afternoon. News reports showed
When Steve Calcote and Lillian Diaz-Przybyl conceived their science fiction series “Orbital Redux” about a year ago, they broke down the story arc, the characters, and the stunts they wanted to include. But because the show is a live series with an interactive audience element, very quickly in the production process they realized they were
The legacy of Marc Bolan and T. Rex will be celebrated in extravagant fashion next year, when BMG will release a tribute album — for which U2, Foo Fighters, Elton John and others are recording tracks — and documentary honoring the singer. Veteran producer Hal Willner (Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, Laurie Anderson, “Saturday Night Live”)
Hollywood’s Motion Picture Association may be finding an increasingly sympathetic ear in Japanese government circles in its call for Tokyo to enable blocking of pirate websites. MPA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin kicked off proceedings Friday at an annual presentation by the organization. As is normal at the gathering, he began emphasizing the economic impact
Hooked, a celeb-backed startup that produces serialized “chat-fiction” for smartphones, is going big with its first long-form story on Snapchat. “Dark Matter” is a five-chapter sci-fi mystery thriller set in present-day Silicon Valley. It premieres Friday (Oct. 26) in Hooked’s Publisher Story on Snapchat’s Discover Page, with subsequent chapters released daily through Oct. 30. The
Ruchika Sachdeva is nervous. The conversations surrounding the current state of the fashion industry—from inclusivity to waste production to whether fashion even matters—have everyone, as the kids would say, shook. Sachdeva, the designer behind Bodice Studio, knows this feeling all to well. After launching her company in 2011, the young designer won the covetable Woolmark
In AT&T’s latest move to streamline WarnerMedia, Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks announced Friday that the FilmStruck indie, arthouse and classic film streaming service will shut down next month. The FilmStruck business will cease U.S. and international operations on Nov. 29, 2018, and the service stopped allowing signups on Oct. 26. A Turner rep
Cameron Dallas knows a thing or two about constructing the sort of pop song you can’t deny. First, there’s the length — a neatly compact three minutes for his major label debut single, “Why Haven’t I Met You?,” released on Oct. 26 by Columbia Records. Second, there’s the stark acoustic guitar coupled with the soft,
Variety and Rolling Stone will co-host their first-ever Criminal Justice Reform Summit next month in Los Angeles. Featuring CNN host and activist Van Jones, as well as Kim Kardashian West and hip-hop artist Meek Mill, the Nov. 14 event will bring together the entertainment, philanthropic, advocacy and policymaking communities to drive criminal justice reform. Jones
The jury of the Tokyo International Film Festival expressed warm greetings and happy feelings about a week of movie-watching in the Japanese capital. But the tone changed noticeably when confronted with the question of the position of women at film festivals, and what are festivals’ responsibilities towards women. Comprised of Philippines director Brillante Mendoza, Iranian
MORELIA, Mexico – “Chivas – the Movie,” the first full-length feature documentary about Mexico’s 112-year old Chivas soccer team held its world premiere Thursday, Oct. 25, at the 16th Morelia Int’l Film Festival. Chivas fans, some wearing the iconic red and white striped Chivas jerseys, crowded the Cinepolis theatre complex in downtown Morelia to cheer
Authorities retrieved two more packages suspected of containing mail bombs on Friday. One was addressed to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and the other to James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, and was to be sent in care of CNN, according to law enforcement sources. The package sent to CNN was discovered at a
October 26, 2018 6:28AM PT A day after an explosive device was sent to his New York City offices, Robert De Niro is urging people to exercise their right to vote. De Niro thanked law enforcement officials for handling the suspicious package that was sent to the offices of his Tribeca Enterprises in Lower Manhattan